Tag Archives: advanced options

It was very common to publish a commemorative booklet in connection with an anniversary celebration in many Swedish American congregations. In addition to the written information in the publication such as the history of the congregation, there are often various kinds of photos such as church buildings, pastors, elected officers of various organizations but occasionally even photos of the regular parishioners.

In the commemorative 75th anniversary booklet published in 1960 for the Bethel Lutheran Church you will find portraits of confirmation classes from the period 1886-1957. The above image shows the confirmation classes for the years: 1904, 1909, 1914 and 1917. Most of the candidates for confirmation have Swedish sounding names.

You can find this commemorative publication in the following volume: Herndon Enne Lutheran Church Vol.: 17. To search for the document in ArkivDigital, do the following:

However, the seamen house records for Åland were missing. Now, we have recently added the seamen house records for the Mariehamn seaman house and the Vårdö seaman house. You can find information about the Ålandic seamen and ships in the various records such as the signing on ledgers (påmönstrings-), signing off ledgers, (avmönstrings-) and seaman rolls (sjömansrullor). Most of the photographed material originates from the end of the 1800’s along with records for the first half of the 1900’s.

The above image is a crew list for the sailing ship, Nils, whose home port is Vårdö, Finland for the year 1926.

You can find the seamen records in ArkivDigital by doing the following:

Go to the search window in ArkivDigital.

Select advanced options.

Select the archive type: sjömanshus.

There you will find a list of all the seamen house records that are in ArkivDigital.

It is a great disappointment for a researcher to discover that many of the church books do not exist for the parish his or her ancestor came from. Sometimes there are gaps in the records or an entire series is missing. Sometimes, one knows the reason why the records no longer exist such as a fire but sometimes there is only a note saying the there are no records.

If your ancestors are from Värnamo, Voxtorp and Tånnö parishes in Småland, you will be initially disappointed because many of the church books were destroyed in a fire in 1869. A story is told that the minister’s maid was in the parsonage cooking pork over the open fireplace. Someone called out for assistance because a cow was calving. The maid ran to help and completely forgot about the pork and the open fire. While the maid was helping with the calving, the fire spread and the parsonage and the church books burned. By luck a few books and household records from 1861 were preserved as well as the birth, marriage and death books for 1825-1860 for Värnamo parish.

But just because the church books no longer exist does not mean that one cannot research further. One should look for other documents. There may be some tax registers, court records and estate inventories that are available. It may take some time and it is not always easy to research in these documents, but with a little patience one can find some additional information.

Värnamo, Voxtorp and Tånnö parishes are located in Östbo härad or district and it is sometimes said that “an accident seldom comes alone”. There was a fire at the Östbo district court in 1834. This means that there are no estate inventories, court records or other documents in that archive that can be used. Fortunately for the court records, there are extracts or duplicate records. The court was required to make extracts or copies of the original court records and submit it to the Göta Court of Appeals once a year. In ArkivDigital’s online library, these are available only for the years 1603 to 1750 for Östbo härad (some gaps do exist).

What now remains for that time period are the tax registers/population registers (mantalslängderna). These were produced each year and while they are not as detailed as the household records, one can easily follow a family on a farm year by year. The more recent one comes in time, the more information one finds in the population registers.

We hope to photograph the population registers and other documents for the parishes where the church books are missing. For some parishes we have already done this. In ArkivDigital population registers for Östbo härad are now available up to and including 1861. Actually, this is the only way one can do family research for Värnamo, Voxtorp and Tånnö parishes.

In ArkivDigital, you can find these populations registers:

1686-1820 (gaps exist) in Jönköping läns landskontor.

1758-1861 (gaps exist) in Häradsskrivaren i Östbo fögderi.

To search in the Jönköping läns landskontor archive using the English interface:

Go to ArkivDigital search.

Select advance options.

Select archive type, country office.

Select Jönköping läns landskontor.

To search in the Häradsskrivaren in Östbo fögderi archive using the English interface:

The image above is the population register for Värnamo in 1850 showing AlandsrydSkattegård. Anders Jönsson (born 1800) and his wife (hustru) born 1805 together with Johan (born 1837), Isak (born 1844), Anna (born 1833), Stina (born 1840) and farmhand (dräng) Johan (born 1832) are shown as living in the first section of the farm listing. Following is the lodger(inhyses), Jöns (born 1767) and his wife (born 1785). Seeing that Anders last name is Jönsson, it is possible that the lodger, Jöns, and his wife are his parents.

One can’t conclude that this is correct without researching more records. Maybe it’s his father, but Jöns wife is probably not the mother because she would have been only 15 when Anders was born. Maybe Jöns remarried or it may be Anders wife’s parents or even someone completely different. More research is necessary before one can resolve the mystery.

Many who research their family history will sooner or later discover a relative who was detained or who was sentenced to prison. There is a possibility that one can discover more information about why and where that person was imprisoned in various prison documents.

Prison lists from the Office of Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslerns arkiv) which are preserved by the National Archives in Stockholm are available in ArkivDigital. These series of prison lists begin in 1750. You can also find prison lists from Finland in these records. We have added all the prison lists from 1750 to 1825 to the online archive.

You can find these prison lists in the archive, Justitiekanslern -1974, Huvudarkivet. Just enter justitiekanslern in the search field or do the following:

Select advanced options.

Select archive type.

Select Justitiekanslern

Another important set of prison records are the prison rolls and prison church books in the respective prison archives at the regional archives. Many of these records begin in the 1800’s. We have photographed records for certain prisons. You can find out which of these prison records are available in ArkivDigital by:

On September 29, we published a blog stating that we have begun adding the church books from the Swedish American congregations in Kansas, USA (link to the blog) to ArkivDigital’s online library. Since then we have added more records and more will be added in the coming weeks.

Prior to our photographing trip to Kansas, we had expected to find Swedish American congregation documents created within Kansas. But we were surprised to find moving out records (flyttningsbevis) from parish churches in Sweden preserved in the church archives.

In the image above, we see the moving our certificate for the widow, Anna Åkersten, issued to her when she departed from Hamrånge parish in Gävleborg county on the 21st of August 1879. If she had moved to another parish in Sweden, she would have taken this certificate to the new parish in Sweden and given it to the minister. In this case, she gave it to the minster in her new home congregation in North America, Bethany Lutheran Church in Lindsborg, Kansas. Not all Swedish American churches collected these documents but some did and preserved them.

You can find the Kansas church books in ArkivDigital by doing the following:

For those who are interested in learning more about sailors or other persons who served in the Navy, the Naval Ship Muster Rolls (Skeppsmönsterrullor) offer information about a ship’s sailings as well as who served on the vessel. These muster rolls, which we have photographed, begin in the year 1689 and end in the year 1873.

The image above is from an 1808 Naval ship muster roll and references the crew on the ship, Dristigheten. The image shows sailors from the Second Södra Möre (beginning of the list starts on the previous page) and the Third Södra Möre Naval companies (båtsmanskompanier). The column on the far right, “Annotationer öfver afgången” or “Remarks about departure” is of special interest. Here you will find notes as to why a crew member left the ship such as transferred to another ship, became ill or died.

You will find the Naval ship muster rolls (skeppsmönsterrullorna) in ArkivDigital by doing the following:

The Göta Canal is one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions for visitors from Sweden and abroad.

ArkivDigital has photographed many older documents from Göta Canal Company’s archive. Among the many records you will find in the online library are rolls of soldiers and craft workers who worked on the canal, registers of ships and incoming correspondence to the Executive Board.

The Göta Canal Company (Aktiebolaget Göta Kanalbolag) manages the canal which was completed in 1832. The company was established in 1810 when construction of the canal began. The Göta Canal Company was privately owned up until 1978, when it was taken over by the state.

One example of what you can find among the many exciting documents in this archive is a list of 19 Russians who were in the “pionjärkompaniet” or pioneer company who requested to return to their home country. You will find this document in volume 20 for “To the Executive Board received letters”. The first names on the list were: Constantin Simeonow, Andrei Iwanow and Iwan Kaslow. See the image at the top of the page.

You can search for the Göta Canal archive documents in ArkivDigital by entering “Göta kanalbolag” in the search box or you can select advanced options and select archive type, corporate archives and then select “Göta kanalbolag”. See image below.

The Swedish Family Register (Svensk Slägtkalender) is available in ArkivDigital’s online library. This work comprising of 14 volumes includes family registers for approximately 1400 commoners or persons not belonging to the nobility. This series of books is often considered a standard genealogical work for commoners.

The first four volumes (1885-1888) have the title, Svensk Slägkalender, while the following volumes (1889-1908) are named, Svenska ättartal. This work was published by the archivist, Victor Örnberg (1839-1908) and is popularly referred to as Örnberg’s ättartal or just Örnberg.

You can find the Swedish Family Register (Svensk Slägtkalender) volumes in ArkivDigital in the archive, Svensk Slägtkalender. You can search for these volumes by entering “Svensk Slägtkalender” in the search box and click search or you can select “advanced options” and search for personarkiv in the archive type selection. Volume 15 includes a name register for all 14 volumes. Below is an image of the search window showing the archive and volumes.

The image at the top of page out of the thirteenth volume shows a register for the Carlström family.

For those who are interested in blacksmiths and persons working in foundries or iron works, there are volumes in ArkivDigital’s online library that include lists of these workers (bruksarbetare).

The image above is the first page for “Förteckning öfver Finspongs, Lotorp och DjurshytteBruks Arbetare För år 1850” or the list of Finspongs, Lotorp, and Djurshytte foundry workers for 1850. Each worker’s position is noted. In this image we see the following positions:

mästaren – master

mästersven – master’s assistant or journeyman

dräng – laborer

You can find these lists (förteckningar) in the following archives and volumes:

You can also find these archives by clicking on advanced options in ArkivDigital’s search window and selecting archive type, mine-inspector.

These records cover Södermanland, Östergötland, Kalmar, Jönköping, Kronoberg, Blekinge, Halland, Malmöhus and Kristianstad counties. The years covered vary by county. The oldest worker lists are from the end of the 1600’s and the newest at the end of the 1800’s.

The general muster rolls (generalmönsterrullorna) are the primary records one uses to research Swedish soldiers who served in the military between the 1680’s and 1880’s. The muster rolls were kept by the respective regiments between every three to five years. In these rolls, you will find information about all soldiers and officers, regiment by regiment, company by company.

In the general muster roll, one can follow soldiers and officers from the time they entered the service until their discharge. Types of information you will find in the muster rolls include: soldier’s name, both their soldier name and earlier name, birth date or age, number of years in the service, height and marital status. One learns if the soldier was promoted and sometimes one learns about commendations. At the end of the soldier’s career, the reason for his discharge is often stated.

The above image gives information about the soldier, Jonas Käck, who served in the Hälsinge regiment in 1863. He served for the rote, Sörfly, in Hanebo parish in Gävleborg county. He was previously named Jon Jonsson and was born in Hanebo parish in Gävleborg county on July 9, 1818. He entered the military on December 10, 1840. At the time of the 1863 muster, he was 44 years old and had served in the military for 22 4/12 years. He was 6 feet and 1.5 inches tall.

The general muster rolls for both the allotted (indelta) and enlisted (värvade) Swedish regiments are available in ArkivDigital’s online library. You can find these records by:

Access ArkivDigital online

Select advanced options

Select archive type, military

An alternative search method is to enter “generalmönsterrullor” in the search box and click search.